Word Live: Comings And Goings
‘Lord, open my eyes to your truth, turn my feet to your path, and harden my heart to the attractiveness of sin. Amen.'
Bible passage
1 John 2:15–27
On not loving the world
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives for ever.
Warnings against denying the Son
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us – eternal life.
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Have you ever been part of an organisation where there were so many comings and goings that familiar faces were leaving and new faces arriving all the time? John does not want his readers to be disorientated by the comings and goings in their church. It was unsettling for them when some committed members deserted the cause. It showed that they never really belonged (v 19). In addition, opponents of Christ were joining (v 18). They were contradicting the truth of Jesus Christ (v 22), trying to lead people astray (v 26).
John’s message is ‘stay on course’ – ‘remain’ (vs 24,27). That is why believers have been given the ‘anointing’ (vs 20,27) – the Holy Spirit is at work in them, enabling them to be steadfast. The teaching they have received does not need to be supplemented by any counterfeit teachers.
But it is hard. We have to live in the world, which has some ugly characteristics (vs 15–17). It continually feeds us selfish desires, deceptive images and pretentious claims. The good news is that the world is passing away (v 17). These characteristics don’t have to influence us. Let us rather continue in Christ and get ready for the greatest coming of all (v 28).
Author
Roger Combes
Respond
‘Father God, I praise you for all the good things you have created for us to enjoy. Help me to reject the world’s ways when they are contrary to yours. Amen.’
Deeper Bible study
‘But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived … your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.’1
John changes his tone as he begins to warn his spiritual children. The theme is still love, but this is a caution against worldly love. If love for God and fellow believers is the goal, then carnal love – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life – is the antithesis, for it does not come from the Father but from the world. You can hear the fatherly wisdom in these verses – ‘I know these things look attractive, but they will actually destroy your life if you’re not careful.’
John then reveals a specific concern to combat ‘those who are trying to lead you astray’ (v 26) by denying that Jesus is the Christ. These are evidently people who had at one time been part of these Christian communities, yet now John calls them antichrists and liars. This fierce denouncement reminds us of Jesus’ description of this ‘son of thunder’2 and has strong resonances with similar language in Revelation. When it comes to defending and protecting his spiritual family, John ferociously reminds them to remain in Christ and to continue to allow the true spiritual anointing they have received to lead them into truth.
John is probably challenging an early form of Gnosticism, which insisted that the apostolic teaching the churches had received should be enhanced with the ‘higher knowledge’ (Greek gnosis) which the Gnostic teachers claimed to possess. John calls this a deception, bent on leading them away from Christ. I wonder what similar issues Christians are facing today, as we navigate our way through an increasingly secular and sceptical culture.
We should be suspicious about any teaching that seeks to supplant or add to the centrality of Christ. New things can be wonderful, but only when they confirm the truth.
12 Cor 11:3 2 see Mark 3:17
Author
Daniel McGinnis
